Portiuncula baby deaths spark renewed calls for nationwide maternity care review

The HSE has written to pregnant women due to give birth at Portiuncula to inform them of the nine reviews currently being carried out at the hospital. File photo

Safer Births Ireland has again called for a review of HSE baby deaths and injuries in the wake of the the latest probe into the treatment of nine babies at Portiuncula University Hospital.

It is the second review of its kind in just over a decade and centres around another above-normal level of babies being referred by the hospital for cooling therapy used to treat babies brain damaged due to a lack of oxygen just before or after birth.

The advocacy group, which is made up of mothers whose children died or were injured in maternity units around Ireland, said there needs to be a “comprehensive review” of maternity services nationwide.

A spokesperson said: “We are lost for words and so deeply sorry to the families who have been impacted by the loss and injuries of their babies at Portiuncula. Accountability and change are necessary.

“The reoccurrence of these critical incidents requires a comprehensive review of the entire system and allow scope for necessary changes towards the avoidable, preventable deaths and birth injuries which continue to occur.” 

Safer Births Ireland is one of the organisations behind a national campaign to get the government to hold a Commission of Investigation into avoidable mother and baby deaths.

An alliance made up of Safer Births Ireland, Feileacain, Aims Ireland, and the Birth Rights Alliance formally launched their call for the inquiry at an event in Leinster House hosted by former Social Democrats Health Spokesperson Roisin Shortall in April 2024.

The alliance wants maternity ward deaths and injuries since 2013 investigated.

The date has been picked as reforms in maternity care that followed the 2014 Portlaoise Baby Scandal came after a Department of Health look-back over deaths in Portlaoise Hospital between 2006 and 2012.

Reviews into five baby deaths in Portlaoise in those years led to the country’s first maternity strategy.

Research initiated by the Irish Examiner in 2023 into coroners inquests into HSE baby deaths showed there have been at least 55 avoidable baby deaths since 2013.

Safer Births Ireland, which helped collate the data in the research, has since called on the government to do a basic look-back over avoidable deaths that featured in the Irish Examiner in December, 2023.

Among the avoidable baby deaths, six each happened in the Coombe and the Rotunda — between 2015 and 2020 — and five were in Our Lady of Lourdes, and four each in Portlaoise, St Luke's and Holles Street.

The factors involved in the deaths are common with baby deaths throughout the health service.

These factors include poor communications, lack of adequate staff training, availability of consultants, women not being listened to and delayed births.

Meanwhile it has emerged that the HSE has written to pregnant women due to give birth at Portiuncula to inform them of the nine reviews currently being carried out at the hospital. The women are being told they can contact the HSE with any concerns they have.

They are also being told they will be facilitated if they want to move their maternity care elsewhere.